FG welcomes UN’s move to tackle development challenges in the Sahel Region

The Federal
Government has welcomed the Sahel Initiative by the United Nations aimed at
tackling development challenges of countries in the Sahel Region of Africa,
noting that security challenges ravaging the region have taken much of the
resources that would have been channelled to development programmes.

The Minister of
Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, while receiving the
Special Adviser in the Office of the Secretary General of the United Nation in
charge of the Sahel Region, Mr Ibrahim Thiaw, in Abuja, said Government
considers the UN Sahel project a very important initiative.

He said it was
gratifying to note that the United Nations is giving serious attention to the
development of the Sahel and pledged Nigerian’s willingness to work alongside
the other nine countries in the region to address the challenges of developing
the region.

Senator Udoma
told the UN team that the more attention Nigeria and other afflicted countries
in the region have from international bodies to resolve security challenges,
the faster these countries can mobilize funds to deal with other issues
challenging the rapid development of the area.

The UN Special
Adviser had told the Minister that the UN is particularly interested in what is
happening in the Sahel Region, especially countries around the Lake Chad, and
is concerned that the security challenges in the area are impeding economic
development and increasing humanitarian challenges.

Worried by this
state of affairs, Mr Thiaw said the Secretary General specifically requested
the setting up of a special programme to deal with the challenges of the
region; pointing out that although the UN and the African Union (AU) have
routinely mobilised funds to tackle some of the challenges in the region, much
of the funds go into security interventions rather than development programmes.

Pointing out that
there are lots of potentials in the region, the UN special envoy said it was
time the narrative in the region changed from the Land of Conflicts to the Land
of Opportunities, “because there is a huge window of opportunities that exist
in the Sahel.”

He stated that
though arid in nature, the Sahel region holds a large body of water that could
make it one of the largest fishing grounds in the world. “The potentials are
there in the Sahel and there is a possibility that the largest fishing grounds
could be found in the Sahel”, he emphasized.

Explaining the
import of the initiative, Mr Thiaw said it is to scale up efforts to accelerate
shared prosperity and lasting peace in the region, pointing out that the
support plan which covers between 2018 and 2030 will help implement identified
priorities to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the
African Union Agenda 2063.

According to him,
the support plan aims to improve coordination and strengthen collaboration with
all partners in the region, including national and regional institutions,
bilateral and multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society
organizations, to work towards operationalizing and implementing the Security
Council resolutions on the Sahel.

The Support Plan
is build around six priority areas namely;

1.
Cross-border cooperation

2.
Prevention and sustaining peace

3.
Inclusive growth

4.
Climate action

5.
Renewable energy

6.
Women and youth empowerment

Mr Thiaw said two
of the national programmes already development by the Initiative is focused on
Agriculture and Energy, especially Wind and Solar energy, a proposal of which
he said would be presented at the IMF/World bank Meetings slated for October in
Bali, Indonesia,; the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, early next
year and the European Economic Council, among others, for assistance
consideration.

He invited
Nigeria to be one of the co-Chairs on a special session on the Sahel, which
will be one of the major side events at the IMF/WB Meetings, due to hold in the
second week of October in Bali, Indonesia.